The news: “On Friday, Delaware’s highest court overturned a 2024 ruling by the Court of Chancery that had voided Musk’s $56 billion, milestone-based pay plan, calling the lower court’s decision to rescind the package an excessively harsh remedy”.
To earn the original $56 billion package agreed in 2018, now potentially worth over $100 billion, Tesla had to reach a $650 billion valuation (which it achieved in 2020) and meet demanding operational targets. For the new and far more audacious 2025 package, potentially $1 trillion, the bar is even higher. It begins at a $2 trillion market cap and climbs in $500 billion steps up to $6.5 trillion, implying that Tesla would need to approach $8.5 trillion in value for Musk to unlock the full award, tied to AI and robotics milestones.
So, how do you pay a human being $56 billion? That was yesterday’s question.
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Today’s question is even more unsettling: how do humans set a target of $8.5 trillion valuation for another human to chase? If Musk somehow gets there and earns a trillion-dollar payday, will anyone still debate the morality of the reward, or will the world simply marvel at the value created?
Good People, this is America at its extremes. In that system, you can earn more than your boss. In industries like semiconductors and AI, you can earn more than the person you report to. Titles mean nothing; value created is everything.
Now, bring it home to Nigeria. Can a board offer a CEO N30 billion in compensation if that CEO can grow a company to a N300 billion valuation within five years, from N100 billion? This is no longer hypothetical. It is a real, strategic choice boards must confront if they truly want outsized outcomes.
Depending on how you see it, you will either say Musk deserves every penny if he delivers or argue that such rewards are immoral in a world where so many remain poor. But one thing is clear: in today’s economy, extraordinary value demands extraordinary incentives. The real issue is that Elon Musk is not investing in Abia State, Nigeria!
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